Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.
We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
If you have your Bible, please open it with me to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes,
towards the middle of your Bible.
We're going to be looking at chapter 2 today in a message I'm calling,
The Key to Enjoying Life.
You know, the American dream is basically to get married, have some kids, own your own house,
and then have enough financial stability so that you can enjoy some fun.
Well, long before America was around, King Solomon was living the American dream.
I mean, he had the dream life, didn't he?
Money, women, power, leisure.
He had it all.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, it's Solomon saying,
My dream life turned out to be a nightmare in the end.
You see, those who eventually arrive at the dream life quickly realize it's not all that it was cracked up to be.
I think of a guy like Robin Williams, who was one of the most admired men in the world.
He had a successful career, making tons of money, making people laugh for a living.
And yet, sadly...
He realized his dream life wasn't worth living, and he took his own life in suicide.
You see, the dream life is empty without God.
When I was a little kid, my brother and cousin sat me down, and they asked me if I wanted to go on a snipe hunt.
And they really built it up.
I could not wait to go.
And if you've never been cultured by going on a snipe hunt,
here's what happens.
Some older kids, typically cousins or friends,
they'll take you out for a hunt for these snipes
in the middle of the night.
And they give you a bag
and you're supposed to catch the snipes in that bag.
And so they'll tell you,
we're gonna leave for a little while
and scare the snipes towards you.
You're supposed to catch them in the bag when they come by.
Well, they leave you all alone in the middle of the night,
and they never come back.
Why?
Because it's just a mean joke, right?
There is no such thing as a snipe.
A snipe hunt is literally a pursuit of nothing.
And that's what Solomon says throughout Ecclesiastes.
Life without God is a pursuit of nothing.
He says, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Everything is meaningless and empty and it doesn't have any significance.
It's nothing without God.
Now, while Ecclesiastes is all about Solomon's pursuit of meaning and significance,
in many ways it's also about his pursuit of happiness.
Solomon's like all of us, he wanted to enjoy life.
Well, how do we enjoy life in the midst of such a broken
and pain filled world?
Well, what's the key?
Well, Solomon's gonna tell us at the end of the chapter.
Now, so far in chapter one,
it's all been pessimism from Solomon.
He said, I went on this journey through life,
looking for significance and fulfillment.
I was trying to save you some trouble.
I wanna write down my experiences.
I was searching for it all, but it's not there.
Life is a mean, cruel joke.
It's the pursuit of nothing.
And he continues describing his pursuit in chapter 2, verse 1.
He said it in my heart.
Come now, I will test you with mirth.
Therefore, enjoy pleasure.
But surely this also is vanity.
I said of laughter, madness or silly.
And of mirth, what does it accomplish?
I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom
and how to lay hold of folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do
under heaven all the days of their life.
Here's the first thing that we learn from Solomon in chapter 2.
A life filled with pleasure is going to leave you empty.
Solomon says, I told myself, I'm gonna talk to myself,
enjoy pleasure.
Like so many of us, Solomon tried making his life
all about fun and games.
He tried the party lifestyle.
In fact, 1 Kings tells us that he threw
these elaborate parties at his palace,
inviting thousands to attend,
to eat these gourmet meals he provided.
The room was filled with laughter and fun and entertainment.
And I'm sure that all that fun and laughter
was good medicine for a while.
It temporarily numbed any emotional pain he had, but it didn't last.
Why?
Because it wasn't capable of healing any wounds.
So Solomon, he tries some alcohol.
He tries wine.
It, too, did not satisfy.
You know, some of the wealthiest, most successful people on earth still try to numb their pain
of what they see as vanity in their life with drugs and alcohol.
Sadly, Tiger Woods is a recent example of someone who seems to have it all and who, for some reason, keeps getting himself in trouble with substance abuse.
Solomon says in verse number 8, the second part, he says,
I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kind.
Now, Solomon didn't have iTunes or Apple Music, but he did have nearly $3 trillion, mainly in gold.
And so he just paid for the best singers around, men's singers, women's singers, to come and entertain him by song whenever he wanted.
Right?
Now, in verse number 8 that we read a moment ago, what the new King James translates as musical instruments, most translate as concubines.
I know that's a big difference.
There's a translation debate about that particular word.
Whatever the word means, though, we do know that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
He left no stone unturned when it came to gratifying his flesh with pleasure.
1 Kings tells us that Solomon collected the most beautiful women from every tribe and nation around,
building homes for them to live in.
And whenever he called for them, he expected them to come.
They would come.
Some of you who are disgusted by that
might just be the same people who have a larger harem than Solomon on your browser history.
doing exactly what Solomon tried to do to bring meaning into your life through these moments of pleasure.
Solomon tried it all. He tried the party lifestyle.
He tried to find fulfillment in a thousand sexual partners.
But he says this, too, is vanity. It's empty without God.
You see, why is that? Well, it's because the pleasure lifestyle leaves no room for suffering.
And life's full of suffering because of the brokenness of our world because of sin.
But it leaves no room for suffering.
It didn't have any answers for that.
Solomon knew it brings no answers when you stand at the grave of a loved one.
It cannot deliver the answer.
Solomon was a smart guy.
He knew that.
And so he turns to the next thing, work.
Verse number four, he said, I made my works great.
I built myself houses.
I want you to notice how many times he says I and myself.
And planted myself vineyards.
I made myself gardens and orchards.
I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
I made myself water pools from which to water
the growing trees of the grove.
I acquired male and female servants
and had servants born in my house.
Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks
than all who were in Jerusalem.
before me. Solomon also learned here that a life filled with work will also leave a person empty
inside. Now, a great work ethic is an incredible quality to have, but eventually you're going to
find out that all of your work and all of your accomplishments in life will not bring you lasting
happiness.
Now, some of us were fortunate enough to start learning the lesson through the successes and failures we experience as young people in sports.
That's one of the reasons I love sports.
It teaches us about how accomplishment doesn't really satisfy.
But unfortunately, not everyone lets those lessons sink in, even as they become adults.
Solomon indulged in the best of architecture, the best of agriculture, the best of engineering, and it all left him empty.
We know that King Solomon was one of the greatest builders of the ancient world.
He built the temple, God's house.
It was a massive construction.
It was elaborate.
Then he built his house, which was actually bigger than God's house.
Solomon was a farmer, he was a rancher,
he planted vineyards and gardens,
orchards with wonderful fruit trees,
he had massive herds of cattle and sheep.
He was one of the greatest business minds
the world has ever seen.
After he got one business up and going,
he went to the next business.
After he finished one project, he went to the next project,
looking for some sense of joy in all of his accomplishments.
But after each business, after each project was successful,
He was still left empty inside.
Our culture and probably even our church is filled with people who find their significance and meaning in life in their work.
They live for success and they're going to do anything to get to the top of their field.
And many will trade their family for their career, never making it to a son's baseball game, never making it to their daughter's recital.
They're rarely at home. And even if they are home, they're constantly on the phone.
They're answering emails all related to work.
Author Jack Higgins said, one thing I know now that I wish I would have known as a boy
is that when you get to the top, there's nothing there.
We think, well, if I could just get that promotion, if I could just meet that quota,
if I could just win that championship, if my kid could just win that championship and get a scholarship,
then I would be made. Solomon said, that's nonsense. That's simply not true.
In 1996, a journalist by the name of John Krakauer
went with a team to climb Mount Everest. They planned it for over a year.
They spent months training for this climb. Well, sadly,
the dream trip turned into a nightmare when on their way down off the mountain
they were caught in a horrible blizzard and eight people on their team were killed.
Krakauer described those moments when he was on the top.
of Everest. He says, straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal,
I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask and stared absently down the vastness of Tibet. I'd been
fantasizing about this moment and the release of emotion that would accompany it for many months,
but now I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Everest.
I just couldn't summon the energy to care.
I snapped four quick photos, then turned and headed down.
My watch read 1.17 p.m.
All told, I had spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world.
You see, when you reach the roof of your world, the roof of your career or some sport or some hobby,
you're going to discover there's nothing actually there.
It, too, is vanity.
So Solomon moves on to the next thing in verse number 8.
He said,
"...I also gather for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings in the provinces."
So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.
Also my wisdom remained with me.
Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure.
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor.
This was my reward for all my labor.
Then I took on all the works that my hands had done,
and on the labor in which I had toiled,
and indeed it was all vanity and grasping for the win.
There was no profit under the sun.
Now, Solomon's annual income was measured not of gold.
His income simply of gold.
It wasn't measured in pounds.
It was measured in tons.
That's how rich this guy was.
He had a stockpile of gold more than anyone has ever accumulated in the history of the world.
And he said, it did not bring me an ounce of satisfaction.
You see, a life filled with awesome stuff also leaves a person empty.
We start learning that lesson as kids,
but it seems like we keep having to repeat the lesson
over and over, right?
I remember as a kid asking my parents for a video game
for my birthday, telling my parents, you know,
if I could just have this game,
I will never ask for anything else in the world, right?
Well, I got the game.
And the excitement lasted for four or five days.
I played every bit of it I possibly could, and I was bored.
And I just wanted the newest game that had just coming out.
You know, if I could get that game,
then I will never ask for anything in the world.
Now, I wished I could say that we all wise up
when we become adults, but we don't.
We think that if I could just get a bigger house,
I'd be good.
If I could just get in a better neighborhood,
you know, if I could just get that beach house
to get out of this Bakersfield heat from time to time,
then I would be good.
Or, you know, the mountain house.
That would be really great.
Listen, it's never enough.
You are always going to be wanting more because contentment is not found in stuff.
It's found in God and God alone.
Tom Brady, considered by most to be the greatest NFL quarterback in history.
We've got a Tom Brady fan over here.
He was asked by a reporter after one of his Super Bowl wins,
of all the Super Bowl rings that you've won, which is the best Super Bowl ring?
And Tom said, the next one.
Why?
Because no matter what you build or accomplish in life,
no matter how much money you have or how much stuff that you acquire,
cool stuff, amazing stuff, it's never enough.
And Solomon knew that.
He got an all the world had to offer, and he's telling us,
he's saying it's not there.
It's not there.
Purpose is not in material possessions.
So he says in verse number 12,
Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly.
For what can the man do who succeeds the king?
Only what he has already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all.
So I said in my heart, as it happens to the fool, it also happens to me.
And why was I then not more wise?
Then I said in my heart, this also is vanity.
For there is no remembrance of the wise than the fool forever,
since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool.
Therefore I hated life, because the work that was done under the sun was distressing for me,
for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
We see that Solomon also learned that a life with wisdom is empty.
Now, we would think, oh, that would be a fulfilling life.
But it's not.
Now, Solomon does admit, he says, there's some real advantages to living with wisdom and morality in your life.
Because the wise person walks in the light.
They can look down the road of life.
They can see that there are certain pitfalls and there are certain ditches.
They can avoid those.
That's an advantage.
The fool, he walks in darkness.
His eyes are closed.
So he falls into the ditches of life without even noticing that they're there.
So Solomon says, wisdom is a whole lot better, but it's also vanity.
It's also nothing.
Why?
Because the same thing happens to the wise as to the fool.
Now, he's talking about death, clearly.
You see, death is coming for us all.
Death is the great equalizer that zeroes out all scoreboards.
We're all gonna die.
We're all gonna experience where a heart beats
for the very last time.
We take their last breath of air if the Lord tarries.
We're all gonna die.
The fool dies, the wise and the moral,
the religious version, we all die.
Derek Kidner in his commentary said,
"'If every card you play is trumped,
"'then what difference does it make
"'which card you play?'
It's all going to end in death.
What difference does it make is what Solomon is saying.
You see, a life without God is sort of like the game of Monopoly.
I loved the game of Monopoly growing up.
You might have some fun in that game.
You're going around the board.
You're stockpiling all of this property.
You're stockpiling all this cash.
But at the end of the game, it's all going back in the box, isn't it?
At the end of life...
We're all gonna end up in a box.
We're all gonna die.
And it's important that we come to grips with that.
So Solomon says, why even try?
The fool dies, the wife is denied.
It doesn't matter how we live.
Verse number 18.
He said,
This also is vanity and a great evil.
For what has a man for all his labor and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?
For all his days are sorrowful and his work burdensome.
Even in the night his heart takes no rest.
This also is vanity.
Solomon is depressed at this point.
But he's got one more idea.
You know, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm going to leave all of my labor, the fruit of all of my labor, all of my wealth,
I'm going to leave it to my kids.
They can have better lives.
But there was a problem.
Solomon realizes his kids might squander it.
He didn't trust his kids.
And he had good reason not to trust them.
Under King Solomon's rule.
There was about four decades of peace.
And in less than a year after his death,
there was a civil war between the North and the South
and the nation of Israel was divided.
The Egyptians came in and Solomon's son, Rehoboam,
he appeased them with what?
Gold, lots and lots of gold.
He stripped the temple of its gold.
He gave all of it to the Egyptians.
All that Solomon had worked his entire life for
was gone in less than a year.
Now you may say, well, pastor, that's pretty extreme example.
Well, do you know how long it takes the average person today to spend the inheritance they receive from their parents?
All that their parents accumulated over a lifetime, how long does it take them to spend?
Less than a year.
Solomon was the wisest man in the world.
He knew how it generally works.
Most of the time people blow it.
So he says, it's all been pointless.
My whole life is a big nothing.
It's not gonna last.
And you know what, he's right.
On a purely horizontal level,
with no thought of the vertical,
with no thought of God,
life doesn't actually matter, does it?
But in verse 24, Solomon switches gears for just a moment.
For a few short verses,
Solomon gives us a brief glimpse of the conclusion
he's gonna make at the end of the book.
He's, so far he's had his under the sunglasses on
that filter God out of life.
They don't consider God in life at all.
But for a few verses here,
he puts on his above the sunglasses,
the one that sees the perspective from God's perspective,
and he brings God back into his life.
And he's gonna tell us here in just a second
that a life filled with God fills a person with joy.
Fulfillment comes from God.
You see the hole that was inside of Solomon
that he was trying to fill,
the hole that's inside each and every one of us,
it's shaped like God.
Only he can fill it.
So Solomon, he tried to fill it with all kinds of stuff.
Same kind of stuff we try to fill it with.
He tried to fill it with pleasure.
He tried to fill it with work and accomplishment,
achievement.
He tried to fill it with wealth and wisdom
and it all left him empty.
The hole remained.
For two chapters now, Solomon has painted a hopeless view of life.
He's building up tension, anticipation.
At this point, we're meant to all be depressed.
Life stinks.
But then he changes gears in verse 24.
He says,
Nothing is better for a man than he should eat and drink,
and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.
This also I saw was from the hand of God.
See, that's the key to Ecclesiastes,
that everything we have is from the hand of God.
For who can eat or who can have enjoyment more than I?
Most translate that without him.
For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight.
But of the sinner, he gives the work of gathering, collecting
that he may give to him who is good before God.
This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
Solomon is saying the key
to enjoying life is to enjoy God
and to enjoy all the gifts that he gives.
Now, if you enjoy the gifts that God gives
without enjoying him,
without recognizing that all of those gifts come from him,
Solomon has been saying that is gonna leave you empty.
That always leads to vanity and emptiness.
But when you invite God into your life, all the gifts that he gives, not just the big gifts of great wealth and accomplishment, but the simple pleasures of life like food and water and work, all of those things, they take on new meaning and significance.
Let's say someone baked you some cookies and they put all the ingredients into those cookies that are needed.
They look amazing.
Put everything into those cookies except for sugar.
Those cookies would be vanity, wouldn't they?
I don't care how good those cookies look.
They're going in the trash.
Why?
Because sugar is the key ingredient.
It brings all the other ingredients to life.
That's God in our lives.
A life without God is like cookies with no sugar.
So you wanna enjoy life?
You wanna know the key to enjoying life?
Allow some sugar into the depths of your soul
to touch you in a place that brings everything to life.
Invite God into every aspect of life.
If you're eating a great meal,
let it be a worship experience, right?
I mean, I'm not saying you worship the steak on your plate.
I'm saying you praise the God who gave the steak.
Invite God into every pleasure of life.
Whether you're eating or drinking,
making love to your spouse,
enjoying a vacation that you worked really hard for,
invite God into it.
Recognize it is a gift from Him
and the significance and the meaning of those experiences
will be multiplied a thousandfold.
God is the key.
Because when God is in it,
Those experiences are not fleeting.
They're not ends of themselves because God's the end.
And there is no end with God.
You see, God is infinite.
It means He has no bounds.
He brings eternal purpose into our lives when He is with us.
Psalm 16, verse number 11 says,
You will show me the path of life.
See, that's what we're all, what's the path of life, God?
He's going to show us.
In your presence is fullness of joy.
At your right hand are pleasures evermore.
Now, I want to say one word of caution.
It's not really a word of caution.
It's just I don't want us to misunderstand the chapter here.
There's nothing wrong with being successful and accomplishing great things.
There's nothing wrong with having some amazing stuff.
I've got a lot of awesome stuff.
There's nothing wrong with pleasure.
Solomon's actually saying enjoy all of that.
Enjoy it as a gift from God.
It comes from him.
They're gifts.
Enjoy them as gifts from him.
But here's when those things become a problem.
When a good thing becomes a God thing, it becomes an empty thing.
When our accomplishments begin defining us instead of Jesus defining us, it's going to leave us empty every time.
When instead of having money, money has us, it's going to leave us empty every time.
So Solomon is saying, he said, recognize all of those little goodies.
That's like icing on the cake.
All of those things, they come from the hand of God.
And when you recognize that, then and only then can you properly enjoy them and enjoy life.
You know, Solomon's words here remind me of 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 31.
It says, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Kelsey's parents have that verse in their guest bathroom hanging on the wall over the toilet.
And when I first stood at the toilet and I saw it, it took me a moment for it to sink in.
And when it did, I busted out laughing.
Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.
And so I started laughing and then I thought, well, wait a minute.
Joed and Annie are more spiritual than I am. Never before have I invited God into my bathroom
experience. That was new for me. I'm sure it's probably new for you. I know that's a little
funny, maybe even borderline crude for me to say from the pulpit, but I hope it's a funny way to
make the point. Why don't you just invite God into every aspect of life?
Whether you eat or you drink, you labor, whatever you do,
do it for his glory.
Invite him into it and he will give it purpose.
Every aspect of our life.
We are not made for money.
We're not made for a good time.
We're not made for food or sex or work
or anything in this universe.
We are made for a God who is outside of the universe.
One who's outside of time, space and matter
or any other creative thing.
We were made for him.
He's the only one who can fill the void
that sin has left behind in our heart.
He's the key to enjoying life.
Now, let's suppose someone gives you a car,
but what if you said to yourself,
they give you this wonderful, nice car,
but you said to yourself, for some reason,
you had this thing against car keys,
and so you said, I'm going to enjoy this car without the key.
Well...
You might be able to enjoy it for a little bit.
You might be able to show it off to some friends and neighbors,
maybe get a kick out of showing them that nice car,
but you're never going to enjoy the car fulfilling its purpose.
And that is to drive you to where you need to be going.
You see, God is the key to life.
Life without God is like a car with no key.
It has no purpose.
Solomon says it's vanity.
Lou Holtz, who was a college football legend of a coach, he died about four or five weeks ago.
And I want to read to you what Coach Holtz had to say about happiness.
He said, want to be happy for an hour? Eat a steak.
Want to be happy for a day? Play golf.
Want to be happy for a week? Go on a cruise.
Want to be happy for a lifetime? Put your faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the message of Ecclesiastes.
Solomon said, I tried it all.
All of it kept leaving me empty inside until I brought God into my life and everything came alive.
You see, the key to enjoying life is to put all of your faith and your trust in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord.
Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.
This is a holy moment in the life of our church.
In just a moment, I'm going to pray.
And after I pray, we're going to stand to our feet.
We're going to sing a song together.
And we're going to have pastors and other leaders and prayer partners here at the front of our worship service.
And we're going to invite you to give your life to Christ.
Perhaps it feels like you've tried it all.
And yet you're still empty.
And you're thinking, there's got to be something more to life than this.
Well, perhaps God's meeting you in this moment.
And he's saying, I am what is more.
I am what has been lacking in your life.
I want to invite you, if you're feeling empty, I want to invite you to be filled today.
Now, at the end of the chapter that we didn't really spend much time on,
Solomon says that God gives joy to the person who's good in his sight.
That's a problem.
You know why?
Because none of us are good in His sight.
We've all sinned.
The Bible says,
for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We've blown it.
But here's the good news of the Bible, the gospel.
It's about how God loves us so much
that he sent Jesus to make us good.
You see, Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
He who knew no sin became sin for us.
And if we believe in him, we're gonna be forgiven.
And he's gonna give us life.
He's gonna fill the void,
the hole that's inside of us that sin has created.
The Bible says,
for whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
I wanna invite you in just a moment
when we stand and there's leaders up here just to step out and come
as God leads.
You walk down one of these aisles, you walk down one of these staircases and you say,
you know what?
I'd love to see the void and the hole filled in my life. I want to give my life
to Jesus.
And you watch how God
meets you right where you're at.
Now, maybe you're a Christian,
you're already a Christian,
you've already begun your journey with Christ, but somewhere along the way
You stopped enjoying the journey.
You stopped enjoying life.
And that's because you started leaving God out of it.
You started with some of the pursuits that Solomon was on,
these pursuits that have a dead end.
They bring no lasting fulfillment.
You've gotten your eyes off Jesus.
You know, Jesus said in John chapter 15, he said, apart from me, you can do nothing.
And I think that's probably how Jesus said it.
That's how I've always read it.
But this week I had a thought that that line from Jesus in John 15 could also read, apart
from me, you can do nothing.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
Nothing.
You can do it.
Your life can be vanity.
Your life can be empty.
Your life could be a pursuit of nothing.
And you know what?
That's what it is for most people.
I want to invite you, if you're a Christian, to renew your relationship with God.
to recognize, man, there is no significance in joy.
None of this actually matters unless I'm connected to Jesus.
He's the one who brings life.
He's the one who brings all the fruit of the spirit of love, joy, kindness, gentleness, self-control.
He's the one who brings transformation.
I want to invite you to renew your commitment to following the Lord today.
Let's pray.
Father,
Thank you so much for creating us and making us, Lord.
You saw fit to have us, and so you made us.
And you love us.
Thank you for your love.
Thank you, Lord, that even though we rejected you,
even though so many of us have ignored you,
even though so many of us have gone contrary to the direction you've asked us to go and told us to go,
you still love us.
And that your grace abounds more and more.
And so I'm asking, Lord, that you do a special work in the life of our church family and all who are listening.
Would you help us recognize the amazing joy and fulfillment that is offered to us in the simple things of life?
Eating, drinking, getting up in the morning and going to work.
Lord, that those things can be awesome experiences when we invite you into them.
Lord, would you help us live that kind of way?
And then I also ask, Lord, if there are those listening
who don't have a personal relationship with you,
Lord, that you do a special work in their heart,
that you would show them how amazing you are
and how empty life is without you.
Give them the courage it's going to take to step out
and trust you as their Savior.
Give them the courage to step out and come.
We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
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